vii.] PRODUCTION OF CHOLERA. 137 



diseased state. Under this view all Koch's and van 

 Ermengem's results become at once intelligible. 



I maintain then that the living choleraic comma-bacilli 

 per se, however large their number, when introduced into 

 the small intestine are quite innocuous, but they are 

 rendered capable of great multiplication if the intestine is 

 previously, from some cause or another, diseased. The 

 chemical products of such multiplication act as poisons 

 analogous to the ptomaines obtained from other putrefactive 

 bacteria. 



That this is the true explanation I find proof in some of 

 Koch's experiments with other bacteria, notably with 

 Finkler's and Deneke's comma-bacilli. With both these 

 organisms on experimenting in the above manner he ob- 

 tained positive results ; not so constantly, it is true, but still 

 he did obtain positive results, not identical, but similar. Of 

 course it is not to be expected that, seeing these are three 

 different species, they would act in the same manner. 

 Finkler J published a large series of experiments, in which, 

 with his comma-bacilli and after the method of experimenta- 

 tion employed by Koch, he produced results identical with 

 those gained by Koch with the choleraic comma-bacillus. 

 There can be no doubt, from what has been shown above, 

 that Finkler's comma-bacillus has nothing to do with cholera 

 nostras, nor with any other infectious disease, but that it is 

 simply a putrefactive organism. And on the same grounds 

 Koch's comma-bacillus cannot be said, by these experi- 

 ments, to have been proved to have a causal relation to 

 chohra Asiatica, any more than has Finkler's comma-bacillus, 

 or any of the other species of septic bacteria that are 

 capable of producing chemical poisons analogous to pto- 

 mai'nes. All that can be said is provided that conditions 

 1 Erganzungsheft z. Centralb. /. allg. Gesundh. i. 5 and 6. 



